Yes the gap needs to be reduced, how is the problem , the Championship/NL1 SC is now 250 K, and most clubs arent operating at that , so how?

I don't know.

A big paying sponsor (chortle) and the RFL distribute it evenly between SL & CH (guffaw).

We need to bridge the gap in terms of quality & revenue between the first and second divisions. But top end CH team can't pay SL wages. Much as I hate to bring it up, look at football. Swansea, Norwich, Reading, Stoke, Wigan....came up and hardly floundered without changing the structure.

Crusaders and Salford were given the first 'licences' and Crusaders have since fallen by the wayside, poor attendances/planning being their downfall. Salford are barely populating their shiny new stadium and Widnes sit bottom of the league, bringing in run of the mill SL/CH players who haven't made it elsewhere and hoping for the best.

Licensing isn't the answer, clearly, but P&R has so many variables that we can't change the system overnight and make it work

The RFL dont know either

It wasnt poor attendances and planning, they were nowhere near ready even in the NL s

Widnes have progressed as the season has gone on and are now giving play off sides a run for their money and in a few cases a beating so far from being a negative for Licensing I think they are showing it works but that the step up can not be overcome quickly and with P&R the panic buttons would be pressed much sooner and Betts could well have gone long before his hard work came to fruition.

All things being equal I'd prefer P&R but it would be a conveyorbelt of the side coming up spending a fortune to in all likelihood go straight back down and as you say we can not change the system over night and in reality over the next dozen years would be pushing it unless we lower the SL standards to such an extent it is little better than the Championship.

Not sure that is accurate as Crusaders made the top 8 and were not far off knocking out Huddersfield in 2010, the stagnation and capitulation after that was down to inept owners wanting to bankrupt Wrexham FC and Crusaders were a bit part player in that but thankfully they are out of the picture now but you do wonder what would have happened if people in charge had wanted to push Cru on last season not strangle them to death.

Celtic Crusader playing out of Bridgend, not the child at Wrexham ,they were never awarded a licence

Surely that's a reason to congratulate Featherstone on their continuing efforts to become a better quality club to replace one of those?

2 nd post page 2

Are they gonna do something about the pitch? When Wigan played there on the telly it looked like a ploughed field.

What's capacity going to be after the redevelopment?

On ground criteria that should put Fev behind Leigh, Fax, Rochdale, Doncaster and Sheffield in the ground stakes for non SL clubs.
I also hope the playing surface is levelled out and flattened as part of this.
The rush to hit ground criteria is ignored in SL, I wonder how much it has cost some non SL clubs.

Its gonna slope down both ways from the centre line then nobody can complain :p

True but results on the pitch suggested ready or not they did become competitive (all beit for just a short time) and I fully expect Widnes to show some sort of similar improvement next season.

No one can be ready for the step up whoever they are and if that is your criteria for who gets a licence then the 14 in there now will never change.

Bingo, by Jove you've got it